Let's Play: Battletech via MegaMek (G2)

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Re: Let's Play: Battletech via MegaMek (G2)

Post by $iljanus »

If the desert has a lot of rolling hills that mechs can jump onto or leap behind then Alpha Ranger

Gamma battle can help guard the auto parts factory.
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Re: Let's Play: Battletech via MegaMek (G2)

Post by NickAragua »

gbasden wrote: Wed Dec 01, 2021 7:13 pm If we were to assign a lighter lance, such as Alpha-Ranger to the desert site, could we also use a hovercraft lance, or are we limited to strictly one lance per site no matter what it is?
You're not limited to one lance, but you also have other areas you need to cover.
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Re: Let's Play: Battletech via MegaMek (G2)

Post by NickAragua »

Votes Results:
Spoiler:
Alpha-Ranger to Factory ||||
Gamma-Battle to Desert |
Beta-Assault to Desert |||
Alpha-Ranger to Desert |
Gamma-Battle to Factory ||
1st Hover Lance to Desert |
Zenn7's hunch leads him to send Beta-Assault to the desert mining complex. Subbing out WestOrEast's beat-up Hatomoto-Hi for a Grasshopper (equipped with a clan-spec pulse laser) from Beta-Hunter lance lets our commander field a full lance - backed up by CJ in the Victor, along with a Flashman, our lance is loaded for bear.

Alpha-Ranger gets directed to defend the factory - other than Lich's Griffin, which has some minor armor damage and is down to half its LRM load, the mechs are undamaged.

The battles these lances are involved in don't happen for a while though, and a Quentin Tarantino movie this is not.

August 5, 3052, 1600 hours
Kado-Guchi Valley Outskirts

Leraje's Gamma-Battle Lance is... well, they're not quite in the meatgrinder that will later become known as the "Valley of Death", but they're pretty close. Having subbed in a Guillotine from Beta-Hunter lance for Xwraith's beat-up Thunderbolt, the Black Knight, Grasshopper and Catapult make their way to assist a reinforced Kurita heavy company in holding down the line. As for Beta-Hunter lance, well, between Siljanus' mech missing an arm and most of its head armor, TheMix' Crusader missing a third of its engine shielding and the Grasshopper being poached by Zenn7, it'll get re-constituted later.

This particular Kurita group is not screwing around. They've got a Cyclops, a Grand Dragon, four other heavies, five mediums, and two mechs we have never seen before. One is an 85-tonner that Leraje's computer identifies as a Crockett. The Crocket is an old-school Star League design that hasn't been in service since the Second Succession War - this one doesn't appear to pack too much fancy tech, but it does have a menacing-looking LB 10-X autocannon sticking out of its right side.

The Mauler is a 90-tonner bristling with weaponry. Two extended-range lasers are the "arms", while twin LRM/15 launchers jut out of its shoulders. The torso is covered with autocannons. This is a sniper, through and through. The last time we saw something like this was the Daboku back in the War of '39, which was a real boner of a mech - but it looks like the Dracs upgraded it since then, upping the armor count and heat sinking capability. We'll see how it holds up against clan weaponry.

Two stars move on our position: an assault star led by a 100-ton Dire Wolf, and a heavy star led by a 70-ton Thor. As an afterthought, they also have five "short" elemental squads. Even with all the Kurita forces backing us up, it's still pretty intimidating.

Round 1:
Spoiler:
Image
Long-range fire, somewhat symbolic, flies between the two opposing forces. The clanners know they have a range advantage, so they remain at range for now, clustering on top of a picturesque hill with a lake draining off the top of it.

Round 2:
Spoiler:
Image
We're never going to pass up the chance to put the hurt on a Stormcrow - with their high ground speed and impressive weapons array, they always need to be taken out.

The Kurita Trebuchet gets a little too brave and has its left arm LRM launcher wrecked by a laser from said Stormcrow. A PPC shot and some LRMs from a Thor cause another armor breach on the right leg - no two ways about it, the Kurita mech is in trouble.

"Maybe you should have hung back a little." Leraje muses as he runs the Black Knight's twin extended-range lasers across the target Stormcrow, our Grasshopper scoring its pulse laser along the medium mech's armor as well.

To the east, we observe a Kurita Hunchback duck under a pair of gauss rounds fired from a Vulture - the giant shoulder-mounted missile racks aren't present on that loadout, it's just a pair of gauss rifles, one in each arm. Nice.

The Kurita guys aren't being *completely* useless, the Mauler lets loose with its quad AC/2s and a large laser, scoring hits on a Hellbringer.

Round 3:
Spoiler:
Image
The Trebuchet's left arm comes off entirely as it pulls back to the woods where our mechs are camping out. The offending Dire Wolf absorbs a good amount of firepower, shrugging off laser and autocannon like it wasn't there while its anti-missile system (must be a different variant) swats incoming LRMs. Not all of them, though, a five-pack rattles the 100-ton mech's cockpit.

Round 4:
Spoiler:
Image
The Grand Dragon apparently didn't get the memo about hanging back. It takes a lot less damage than expected, thanks to its squat profile and dropping into the river, but its left arm is basically gone. It does join Leraje in continuing to pelt away at the Dire Wolf, while our Grasshopper lands a pulse laser hit on a Warhawk's head, causing smoke to puff out from destroyed components.

Round 5:
Spoiler:
Image
The Grand Dragon perhaps realizes his mistake, but it's too late - a Stormcrow drills it through the left torso with a couple of lasers, and the LRM ammo bin goes up, taking the signature Kurita mech out. Its last LRM salvo spangs a few missiles off the Dire Wolf's left arm, the 100-ton mech continuing to ignore the pitter-patter of light autocannon fire from the distant Mauler for now.

Round 6:
Spoiler:
Image
"Hi." Leraje comments as the killer Stormcrow runs in, melting armor off his Black Knight's legs with its lasers. He replies in kind, although the Ryoken is shorter, meaning our mech's lasers hit the torso instead for the most part.

The Dire Wolf legs the damaged Trebuchet with a series of pulse laser blasts, putting it out of action, while the Kurita Cyclops to the south takes multiple armor breaches and loses an actuator or four, dropping to the ground in what is, frankly, not the best place to wind up.

Round 7:
Spoiler:
Image
"How did El Guapo freaking do it?" Leraje wonders, continuing to fire at the Dire Wolf - armor flakes off, but there's just so damn much of it, and the headshot proves elusive this time. An explosion signals the end of the Kurita Phoenix Hawk as lasers from a Stormcrow peel apart its rear torso armor and detonate the machine gun ammo.

Round 8:
Spoiler:
Image
We finally manage an armor breach on the Dire Wolf's right arm, after many, many laser blasts, with the Mauler and Jagermech to the east joining in with autocannons and LRMs. The Mauler loses its right arm for its trouble and takes a center torso armor breach from an SRM salvo, followed by a full load of SRMs and LRMs shredding its gyro.

Well, that's a bummer.

The Kurita Crusader to the south drops to the ground as well, under weight of weapon fire, where its left arm and torso promptly crunch together, crippling the mech. This is going great so far, with the clanners having lost zero units while the Kurita force is down six mechs, including two out of their three assaults.

Round 9:
Spoiler:
Image
The Stormcrow that's been harassing us takes two armor breaches as three of our heavy mechs focus it down with laser fire.

The counterpoint is when the Dire Wolf blasts the Kurita Catapult. Although the mech's LRM ammo is nearly depleted, it's not depleted enough, and the 65-tonner disintegrates.

Round 10:
Spoiler:
Image
"Let him go, stay focused. We've got uh... " Leraje lets out a breath, trying to figure out how to say we're completely screwed without actually saying it and causing a panic. He opts to trail off and focus fire on the Dire Wolf - which pays off. A large laser breaches the 100-ton mech's right torso armor, detonating the AMS ammo and blowing the right arm off - the blowout panels prevent the mech from being destroyed entirely, but the mechwarrior blacks out and the mech drops to the ground. Leraje's computer informs him about multiple left leg armor breaches - an awkward step causes our mech to snag its heel on a particularly large tree root as it backs up into the woods, dropping it on its back.

"LRM bins are dry." our Catapult sounds off. "Might be a good time to bug out."

Round 11:
Spoiler:
Image
"Not a bad idea." Leraje notes as a Summoner and another Stormcrow advance, at which point a slug from the Summoner's LBX autocannon shatters the Black Knight's leg, dropping it to the ground again.

"Sonofa..." our mechwarrior says through gritted teeth. "Gonna be tough for me to bug out now without a leg."

Round 12:
Spoiler:
Image
An attempt to get up despite the wrecked leg doesn't really help - instead, the engine, gyro and active probe sort of crunch against each other, the active probe coming out worse off than the other two things. Our mechwarrior takes a breath, scowling. There's no way the Black Knight is walking off under its own power now. "Battle Lance, break east and disengage as able."

With tears in his eyes, Leraje fires off the Black Knight's lasers and PPC once more, turning the cockpit into a sauna, then yanks the ejection lever, being treated to the sight of a Kurita Orion getting knocked down to a knee by a Thor's weapons fire and losing its autocannon as the ejection seat floats down gently near the river. "Later, big buddy." our mechwarrior mouths, looking at the hulk of the slowly cooling Black Knight.

Round 13:
Spoiler:
Image
"Eat this!" our Grasshopper's pilot calls out as he drills the other clan Stormcrow through the back of the head with a blast from the torso-mounted large pulse laser.

Round 14:
Spoiler:
Image
As we begin pulling back, the Kurita Jagermech explodes, after a PPC blast from a clan Summoner exposes the left torso section and an LBX slug crushes the autocannon ammo bin. The other Summoner fries the Kurita Centurion's autocannon with a PPC blast, leaving a pretty small amount of heavy guns in our our allied hands - we watch the Hunchback slowly withdraw along the south edge of the battlefield, leaking coolant fluid and trailing smoke from a breached engine compartment.

Round 15:
Spoiler:
Image
We continue retreating, linking up with the damaged Orion and Centurion. An explosion from where the clan mechs are still clustered up announces the end of the Kurita Shadow Hawk. It actually lasted a surprisingly long time.

Round 16:
Spoiler:
Image
A Summoner gets on our way and loses its LBX autocannon arm for its trouble.

Round 17:
Spoiler:
Image
The Kurita Centurion doesn't take the hint from us jumping by and eats multiple LBX autocannon rounds, clustered around the center torso - with armor already weakened by something else, the mech's structure can't take it any more and it drops to the ground.

Round 18:
Spoiler:
Image
The clan Summoner decides to avoid taking the three of our mechs on for the time being - we look like we're still coordinated.

As we retreat, we watch the Crockett get overwhelmed by weapons fire and knocked to the ground, although the mechwarrior does manage to cripple a Summoner by taking out its PPC (which, in a fight that's gone on as long as this, is crippling as the Summoner has long since run through its LBX and LRM ammo).

The Orion trades itself for a Warhawk - the Orion is annihilated in an ammo explosion, while the Warhawk takes a headshot from one of the Orion's medium lasers.

Not the best showing, but we did what we could. The Clan force has been reduced by a little under 50%, but, more importantly, given what we know about their tendency to low-ball ammo counts, they're probably out of ammo. Still, they press on toward the main battle, meaning they've either got reinforcements coming, are hoping to bluff, or both. Six heavy and "light assault" mechs, five elemental points.

Expected interception point is some broken hills between our location and the "Valley of Death", where, even now, entire regiments of mechs lay waste to one another.

We've got a Grasshopper, a Catapult and a Guillotine, all with some armor damage; the Catapult is out of ammo. Luckily, we've got some forces left over. Not too much, but...

[] Delta-Sweep: four light, jump capable mechs;
Not exactly great for fighting clanners, but might do the trick if they're out of ammo.
[] Heavy Tank Lance: 4x heavy/assault tanks.
As long as the clanners don't decide to just run around them, these guys will get it done. That's a big if, though.
[] 1st Hover Lance: 4x close range hover tanks.
Normally easily dispatched by clan mechs, but, again, if the clanners are out of ammo.
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Re: Let's Play: Battletech via MegaMek (G2)

Post by NickAragua »

Amusing trivia: this scenario was based on Scenario 14: Cat and Dragon from the Luthien sourcebook. The guy in the Grand Dragon was Coordinator Takashi Kurita. For anybody who read the book, Shin Yodama (driving the Phoenix Hawk) managed to convince the coordinator not to charge the approaching clanners. Not quite what happened in this one, lol.
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Re: Let's Play: Battletech via MegaMek (G2)

Post by Leraje »

My poor Black Knight... do we get to tow it home since Clanners are leaving?

Send Delta-sweep - they are fast and can bug out if situation warrants it.
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Re: Let's Play: Battletech via MegaMek (G2)

Post by NickAragua »

Leraje wrote: Fri Dec 03, 2021 10:00 pm My poor Black Knight... do we get to tow it home since Clanners are leaving?
We may get to recover it depending on how the next couple of scenarios go. If the clanners kick our asses locally, then they might just grab anything that's not nailed down.
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Re: Let's Play: Battletech via MegaMek (G2)

Post by Leraje »

NickAragua wrote: Fri Dec 03, 2021 10:08 pm
Leraje wrote: Fri Dec 03, 2021 10:00 pm My poor Black Knight... do we get to tow it home since Clanners are leaving?
We may get to recover it depending on how the next couple of scenarios go. If the clanners kick our asses locally, then they might just grab anything that's not nailed down.
Note to self - have techs augment the ejection system of all our mechs with auto-nailing system. :P
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Re: Let's Play: Battletech via MegaMek (G2)

Post by TotallyNotEvil »

Urgh, this would have been a great place to use Alpha-Ranger.

How many more deployments are we expected to make?

Maybe the light mechs and the heavy tanks could finagle something here.
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Re: Let's Play: Battletech via MegaMek (G2)

Post by Zenn7 »

Unless the remaining clan mechs are nearly 100% ammo dependent, none of our options sound too promising.

Delta Sweep I guess. They might be able to maneuver enough to not get hit too hard by their remaining firepower.
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Re: Let's Play: Battletech via MegaMek (G2)

Post by $iljanus »

TotallyNotEvil wrote: Sat Dec 04, 2021 3:06 pm Urgh, this would have been a great place to use Alpha-Ranger.

How many more deployments are we expected to make?

Maybe the light mechs and the heavy tanks could finagle something here.
I think this is a good pairing but I don’t know if we need to be conservative with our deployments so hopefully we are nearing the end of the campaign. It’s a good sign though if the Clans are really running out of ammo.
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Re: Let's Play: Battletech via MegaMek (G2)

Post by NickAragua »

TotallyNotEvil wrote: Sat Dec 04, 2021 3:06 pm How many more deployments are we expected to make?
The “main” battle is currently on-going, so it’ll be over one way or the other pretty soon.
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Re: Let's Play: Battletech via MegaMek (G2)

Post by TotallyNotEvil »

[X] Send both the light mechs and the heavy tanks- hopefully, the gathered mech lances can me a hammer to the tanks' anvil.
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Re: Let's Play: Battletech via MegaMek (G2)

Post by Zenn7 »

TotallyNotEvil wrote: Sun Dec 05, 2021 7:43 pm [X] Send both the light mechs and the heavy tanks- hopefully, the gathered mech lances can me a hammer to the tanks' anvil.
If we don't anticipate any further required deployments before we can repair (at least armor) and reload, yeah, send 'em both.
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Re: Let's Play: Battletech via MegaMek (G2)

Post by moleymoleymoley »

TotallyNotEvil wrote: Sun Dec 05, 2021 7:43 pm [X] Send both the light mechs and the heavy tanks- hopefully, the gathered mech lances can me a hammer to the tanks' anvil.
This, hoping the tanks can do some damage
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Re: Let's Play: Battletech via MegaMek (G2)

Post by NickAragua »

Vote Results:
Spoiler:
Delta-Sweep ||

Delta-Sweep + Heavy Tank Lance ||||
January 5, 3052, 1630 hours
Kado-Guchi Valley Outskirts

The clanners pressing towards the main battle are joined by a short star of medium and heavy mechs, while Delta-Sweep moves rapidly to reinforce the remaining three mechs of Gamma-Battle lance. A reinforced lance of Kurita mechs joins the fight as well - three heavies and two lights. Well, the Hermes is technically a medium, but come on.

Our heavy tanks have also trundled into position to intercept, so this is it. These clan mechs and elementals may not make *that* much difference with the volume of firepower being slung around in that valley, but having two stars of mechs plow into the back of a fire support formation won't do the Kurita, Kell Hound and Wolf's Dragoons forces any favors.

So we're here to stop them.

Round 1:
Spoiler:
Image
A pretty impressive-looking lineup, if you ignore the fact that the Catapult is out of LRM ammo, and all three of our heavy mechs have armor damage.

Right away, a Stormcrow approaches our position, dropping some battle armor troopers. Our Behemoth tank opens up on the battle armor with its twin AC/10s, blasting one trooper to bits; the Mad Dog behind the Stormcrow takes multiple hits to the torso, cracking its armor and likely engine shielding as its heat spikes quite considerably - even a clan mech has trouble standing up to a gauss slug, seveal pulse laser shots and a PPC blast.

The Kurita Archer and Rifleman take multiple hits, the Rifleman losing one of its medium lasers while the Archer drops to the ground, unbalanced by multiple gauss rifle impacts.

Round 2:
Spoiler:
Image
Our Manticore switches targets, aiming at a group of Elementals hiding in the hills up ahead - one trooper takes a direct PPC hit followed by a short range missile and drops to the ground, no longer moving.

To the east, one of our Jenners runs forward and engages some Elementals, blowing away two of them with its laser array.

The Kurita Archer drops to the ground under continued fire, having suffered multiple armor breaches. Our Venom jumps in behind the "leader" Stormcrow, stitching pulse laser blasts across its rear, but fails to breach armor.

Round 3:
Spoiler:
Image
The Kurita Rifleman buys the farm - multiple armor breaches to the right torso detonate its ammo bin, sending the autocannon and large laser assembly that is the right arm flying off. A clan mech from the south spares a brief blast at the Kurita Hermes, disabling its autocannon. And a Stormcrow blasts away at the long-suffering Kurita Archer, peppering its torso section with long and short-range missiles (in the clan world, long range missiles don't seem to really have minimum range limitations). The 70-tonner's engine briefly flares up, then shuts down as the mech drops to the ground in several pieces.

We do manage to knock a Timber Wolf down, though, causing a left arm armor breach.

Round 4:
Spoiler:
Image
The Kurita Griffin eats multiple lasers from a Stormcrow - the clan mechwarrior has unnaturally good shot grouping and three of the lasers drill through the center torso armor, resulting in a Griffin that's missing most of it's engine shielding in the space of about ten seconds.

The Kurita Hermes gets revenge on the Timber Wolf - as the 75-ton mech lays into the already damaged Kurita Griffin, it opens itself up to a headshot from the Hermes' laser. Never mind that we'd already scored multiple head hits to open the armor up a little bit.

Our light mechs also manage to trip up the two Stormcrows, reducing their mobility somewhat, at least temporarily.

Round 5:
Spoiler:
Image
The headshot parade continues - the Executioner, which had already taken some damage in the previous battle, meets our Catapult's quad lasers - the 65-tonner may be out of LRMs, but retains its laser loadout. The rest of the lasers don't actually hit, it's just the one laser, but it's enough - the 95-ton assault mech flops forward, a thin trail of smoke coming from the burnt-out cockpit.

Our Grasshopper saws the left arm off an approaching Summoner. The lasers would have torched the LRM ammo as well, but that bin is long since empty.

Our Behemoth tank is immobilized by a Stormcrow that's manage to get past our light mechs, but it's done a pretty good job keeping up a volume of fire. The assault tank's last retaliation before the crew bails out is to knock the Stormcrow's left leg out, sending the 55-ton mech sliding forward along the grass before it comes to a stop.

Round 6:
Spoiler:
Image
Either our Catapult is on a roll, or this clan force was in really bad shape after the last fight - firing a single laser salvo at a Gargoyle shouldn't cause this much damage, but it does. An ammo bin blows, sending the right arm flying off an knocking the mechwarrior out apparently - the engine is still powered up, but the mech is on the ground, motionless.

The retreating Summoner apparently hasn't quite had enough yet, as it melts our Jenner's left leg with its PPC, dropping it to the ground. Still, this is going our way - the clans just have a Stormcrow and a Hellbringer left, with another Stormcrow on the ground still firing, while the Summoner attempts to retreat.

Until our Grasshopper gets up on a nearby hilltop and puts a boot through its back - now it's just
good for spare parts.

Our Demon tank takes some SRMs from the Hellbringer, slowing it down, but it's still got the gauss rifle and a little mobility.

Round 7:
Spoiler:
Image
The two remaining functional clan mechs attempt to retreat, less than successfully - the Hellbringer gets brought low by lasers from our Grasshopper, its destroyed gyro causing it to spasm before dropping to the ground as our Manticore tank puts a PPC shot through the engine to shut the mech down for good. It immobilizes our Demon tank on the way down, but that hardly matters at this point. With the remaining Stormcrow losing its leg, all that's left is several squads of Elementals, and they retreat fairly rapidly. Our Guillotine takes some leg actuator damage chasing down a couple of Elemental squads and has to let them go, while our Manticore winds up immobilized by a squad that swarms the tank, but they don't stick around to finish the job due to being surrounded by a lance and a half of mechs.

The field is ours; now we await the results of the battle in the valley proper - comms chatter indicates that it's going our way.

Salvage is pretty good, we wind up with two Stormcrows, a 95-ton Executioner, spare parts for a Summoner, a Gargoyle and a Hellbringer. Three of our tanks are immobilized, one of our Jenners got legged and the Guillotine can barely move, but we've still got two heavy mechs, three lights and a Shreck PPC carrier. And also a light hovertank lance standing by.

When the Kurita mechs announce their intention to join the main battle going in the valley, the lance leader thinks for a second. We could push our luck and try to get more salvage, but our mechs aren't exactly pristine, and we're talking about joining a fight between hundreds of mechs. Not to mention all the aerospace fighters - the clan aerospace fighters currently maintain air superiority everywhere except where it matters: over the valley. But they still occasionally make passes to try to drop bombs or perform strafing runs on stray mechs.

Or, we could call it a day and just wait for the results of Beta-Assault and Alpha-Ranger's action.

[] Push for more salvage
[] Call it a day
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Re: Let's Play: Battletech via MegaMek (G2)

Post by Freyland »

Call it a day
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Re: Let's Play: Battletech via MegaMek (G2)

Post by Zenn7 »

Freyland wrote: Mon Dec 06, 2021 10:27 pm Call it a day
Yeah, we're good.

Joining the valley sounds like an excellent way to die gloriously (or more likely, die before they even really notice we're there, other than the "hey, thanks for take those shots for us!" as we die in the blink of an eye.
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Re: Let's Play: Battletech via MegaMek (G2)

Post by Freyland »

Zenn7 wrote: Mon Dec 06, 2021 11:01 pm
Freyland wrote: Mon Dec 06, 2021 10:27 pm Call it a day
Yeah, we're good.

Joining the valley sounds like an excellent way to die gloriously (or more likely, die before they even really notice we're there, other than the "hey, thanks for take those shots for us!" as we die in the blink of an eye.
Hey, got any of those decoys leftover that we could nonchalantly race down into the valley? :)
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Re: Let's Play: Battletech via MegaMek (G2)

Post by Leraje »

Zenn7 wrote: Mon Dec 06, 2021 11:01 pm
Freyland wrote: Mon Dec 06, 2021 10:27 pm Call it a day
Yeah, we're good.

Joining the valley sounds like an excellent way to die gloriously (or more likely, die before they even really notice we're there, other than the "hey, thanks for take those shots for us!" as we die in the blink of an eye.
Agreed.
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Re: Let's Play: Battletech via MegaMek (G2)

Post by $iljanus »

Leraje wrote: Tue Dec 07, 2021 1:19 am
Zenn7 wrote: Mon Dec 06, 2021 11:01 pm
Freyland wrote: Mon Dec 06, 2021 10:27 pm Call it a day
Yeah, we're good.

Joining the valley sounds like an excellent way to die gloriously (or more likely, die before they even really notice we're there, other than the "hey, thanks for take those shots for us!" as we die in the blink of an eye.
Agreed.
Might have been fun but probably very, very short lived fun so I’m okay with calling it a day.
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Re: Let's Play: Battletech via MegaMek (G2)

Post by gbasden »

Agreed. These guys have done their job. Go back to base.
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Re: Let's Play: Battletech via MegaMek (G2)

Post by El Guapo »

Zenn7 wrote: Mon Dec 06, 2021 11:01 pm
Freyland wrote: Mon Dec 06, 2021 10:27 pm Call it a day
Yeah, we're good.

Joining the valley sounds like an excellent way to die gloriously (or more likely, die before they even really notice we're there, other than the "hey, thanks for take those shots for us!" as we die in the blink of an eye.
Agreed.
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Re: Let's Play: Battletech via MegaMek (G2)

Post by NickAragua »

Vote Results:
Spoiler:
Call it a day - unanimous
"Good luck." our lance leader scoffs, making sure his comms are off. We remain in the area, ostensibly to ensure that no further clan units attempt to make their way to the battlefield - it's theoretically possible, those battle armor suits are still skulking around.

January 5, 3052, 1700 hours
Imperial City, Luthien

Lich's Alpha-Ranger lance winds up getting some action - a group of eight clan mechs, mediums and lights, manages to break away from the main battlefield, backed up by almost forty battle armor troopers.

The defending Kurita force is woefully inadequate - a medium mech lance, four battle armor squads and two infantry platoons, so Alpha-Ranger's presence should help even the odds.

Technically, the Kurita commander says they have air support on call, but how that's possible is unknown - the remaining Inner Sphere aerospace fighters have their hands full keeping the clanners out of the valley.

We set up our mechs inside some sturdy-looking warehouses, joining the Kurita guys in hopefully ambushing the incoming clan force to put the hurt on them.

Round 1:
Spoiler:
Image
It doesn't really work out completely - the Kurita infantry and battle armor are badly out of position as the clan mechs charge in, dropping off their Elemental cargo.

Our Ostroc runs up behind a 30-ton Kit Fox (a fairly fast light mech with a variety of weapons including a pulse laser and an LBX/5, along with a streak SRM/4), melting armor off its legs with a pair of large laser blasts, in order to relieve pressure on a Kurita Hunchback, which is getting harried by a 25-ton Mist Lynx and its multipls lasers and SRMs. The Kit Fox still lands a lot of firepower on the Hunchback, but with its leg armor gone, it becomes easy prey for a kick.

The Hunchback is having none of this and lets rip with the AC/20, blasting the Kit Fox's left torso - the arm goes flying, along with half the mech's guns.

Lich and our Dervish engage targets from inside their camping spots - Lich's building absorbs an awful lot of Elemental-launched SRMs and alsers, while the Dervish's building eats pulse laser and ultra autocannon from the Nova. Lich's PPC completely fries one Elemental, leaving just 39 to go. Literally.

The Kurita Shadow Hawk to the southeast doesn't have too much luck, getting mobbed by Elementals and having a PPC blast from an Ice Ferret core it out with a back shot. Clan honor, not so much.

Lich is just about to fire up the jump jets when the entire structure collapses, leaving him and our Wolverine in a pretty bad spot. Same happens to our Dervish to the northwest. Lich gets lucky though, and is able to scramble out of the debris - our Wolverine is not so lucky and is trapped underneath.

Round 2:
Spoiler:
Image
The Mist Lynx continues firing on the Hunchback, disabling the 50-ton mech's monster autocannon with a series of SRMs. The Hunchback fires back joined by our Ostroc, and while we create an armor breach, it doesn't take the lighter mech out. The Hunchback is then destroyed by an LRM salvo from a Vulture down the street, its remaining autocannon ammo going off. Our Ostroc's kick crunches the Mist Lynx's right leg, sending the lighter mech to the ground.

Lich jumps backwards out of the debris, snapping a PPC shot off at the Nova to the south, disabling its left arm laser then slicing the arm off with one of the Griffin's lasers.

The Kurita mechs have a pretty bad day - the Centurion's autocannon ammo blows, scattering bits of it all over the factory area, while the Vulcan's fireworks source is its machinegun ammo bin. The Centurion's farewell blast is an LRM salvo at an Adder, which takes out the mech's targeting computer.

This is now looking extremely bad - four of our mechs against six clan mechs and thirty nine elementals. We're backed up by sixteen battle armor troopers and two infantry platoons, and some theoretical air support.

Round 3:
Spoiler:
Image
"Hell no." Lich notes, backing the Griffin up. "Ranger Lance, pull back to the north. No way we can hold this."

Our mechwarrior spares a brief glance for a Stormcrow using its lasers to fry several Kurita battle armor troopers - the Inner Sphere armor just doesn't stack up to those clan suits, then focuses fire on the Nova chasing him down - the PPC melts a substantial amount of left leg armor, and the follow-up LRMs blow out an actuator.

Our Dervish is buffeted by SRMs from Elementals to the east, its armor basically disappearing, but manages to get a good shot in on the Mad Dog chasing down our Ostroc - a laser fries the 60-tonner's weak rear armor and an SRM torches an LRM ammo bin, sending its right arm spinning off into a nearby building. The Dervish's right arm eventually simply falls off under massed SRM fire, but the mechwarrior keeps the mech upright.

Round 4:
Spoiler:
Image
Lich's mech grinds and creaks as a PPC melts the center torso armor, exposing the interior - our mechwarrior fires back, blasting the offending Adder with a PPC shot and some LRMs, one of which corkscrews into the shoulder joint, jamming it.

Other than that, the Elementals close with the Kurita battle armor and begin a thorough massacre - the Inner Sphere battle armor has less protection and half the guns, and they're outnumbered, so they have no chance.

Round 5:
Spoiler:
Image
Amazingly enough, the promised air support does arrive, a couple of the fighters vectoring in and dropping inferno bombs on some Elemental squads clustered a little too close together - eliminating eight individuals or so in total.

It doesn't really make a difference though - we're still three mechs against five (technically six - that Mist Lynx we legged earlier has managed to get up), plus overwhelming odds in terms of battle armor.

Without any mech backup, the Kurita ground-pounders withdraw as well, leaving the inferno-started fire and clanners to destroy the factory complex - they don't have too much time, with their compatriots slowly but surely losing the battle in the valley, but it's enough.

Next up: Beta-Assault.

[AN: Not sure what the scenario designers were thinking with this one: not only did the clan mechs and battle armor outnumber the Kurita mechs and battle armor, but the air support is only allowed to show up some time after turn three; having our mechs in there evened out the BV and unit counts, but with three of the Kurita mechs blowing up in one turn, and a boner of a move on my part putting our mechs into those buildings, there wasn't much to be done]
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Re: Let's Play: Battletech via MegaMek (G2)

Post by TotallyNotEvil »

NickAragua wrote: Wed Dec 08, 2021 3:36 pm

January 5, 3052, 1700 hours
Imperial City, Luthien

Lich's Alpha-Ranger lance winds up getting some action - a group of eight clan mechs, mediums and lights, manages to break away from the main battlefield, backed up by almost forty battle armor troopers.

The defending Kurita force is woefully inadequate - a medium mech lance, four battle armor squads and two infantry platoons, so Alpha-Ranger's presence should help even the odds.
Jesus fucking Christ Nick, this was more lopsided than the other 40 Elemental one.
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Re: Let's Play: Battletech via MegaMek (G2)

Post by Zenn7 »

Better double check the game. Think the clanners may have hacked it to stack things in their favors!
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Re: Let's Play: Battletech via MegaMek (G2)

Post by fazaliuyt »

Hey, we don’t want your spam here. ComStar has been notified.
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Re: Let's Play: Battletech via MegaMek (G2)

Post by NickAragua »

Although, to be fair, at least it was on topic, even if it was a year behind the curve.
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Re: Let's Play: Battletech via MegaMek (G2)

Post by $iljanus »

NickAragua wrote: Thu Dec 09, 2021 10:40 am Although, to be fair, at least it was on topic, even if it was a year behind the curve.
Would have gotten away with it too! If there wasn't a link for some Minecraft apk at the end.
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Re: Let's Play: Battletech via MegaMek (G2)

Post by NickAragua »

January 6, 3052, 0235 hours
Nijunen Desert, Luthien, Draconis Combine

A slightly re-constituted Beta-Assault lance awaits alongside a company of Kurita heavies (and some lights... and infantry) as sensor contacts enter range. We've got Zenn7 in the Awesome, a Grasshopper borrowed from another lance, CJ in the Victor and a Flashman. We've chosen to hide our mechs inside some dug out quarries, which will give us cover from the clanners' longer range weapons as they approach.

The approaching clanners are "just" two stars - but one is an assault star while the other is a medium. And they've got forty Elementals. But the main problem is going to be the Dire Wolf.

"Well..." Zenn7 says, looking at the rest of his lance. "Go for the headshot."

Round 1:
Spoiler:
Image
Long-range laser and PPC fire flashes between the two closing forces - a PPC blast nails a Kurita Archer center of mass while our Grasshopper zaps the searchlight off an approaching Stormcrow. The Archer staggers backwards under the incoming fire but remains upright.

CJ lands a gauss rifle hit on a squat Adder in the front of the enemy formation - it's not the cleanest hit, but it does snap off that mech's floodlight, as well as some armor.

Round 2:
Spoiler:
Image
As we duck behind some hills to avoid return fire, the Kurita Archer exchanges fire with an advancing Timber Wolf. The Archer's LRMs cluster around the clan mech's shoulder, which continues throwing sparks long after the explosions cease. The Archer takes multiple lasers and LRMs in exchange, falling over.

Round 3:
Spoiler:
Image
We pop up as the slightly damaged Timber Wolf approaches our weapons range. Zenn7 blasts it with the Awesome's PPCs, landing all three shots and stripping a significant amount of armor off the left side. CJ scowls as his gauss slug impacts the hill in front of the 75-tonner instead of the mech itself.

The Kurita Archer manages to get back up to a knee, only to take multiple armor breaches from long-range fire - the Dire Wolf has it zeroed in and fries the left arm. It's not going down quietly though, the Timber Wolf takes a left arm armor breach.

Round 4:
Spoiler:
Image
Zenn7's target backs out of line of sight, so our mechwarrior switches the Awesome's firepower over to a Warhawk, blasting a good chunk of right arm armor off the 85 tonner. The enemy mech responds by targeting the Stalker behind Zenn7, blasting armor off the fellow 85-tonner's left side with pulse lasers and extended-range PPCs. The Kurita mech joins Zenn7, responding with LRMs. Between the two of our mechs, the Warhawk drops to the ground.

The poor Archer finally has had enough. No, not the mechwarrior, the mech. After a few too many extended-range laser blasts from the Dire Wolf, the mech separates into a few different components - a loose arm, some legs, and a mechwarrior climbing out of the cockpit, looking at his smoldering mech, wondering where he went wrong.

"Sorry, pal." CJ says to himself, feathering the Victor's jump jets to come to a landing. "Hope you enjoy driving bug mechs, 'cause that's what I see in your future."

Round 5:
Spoiler:
Image
Surely, that's not as bad as it looks, right? Well, it's pretty bad. Our Grasshopper gets focused down, its right torso coming taking multiple PPC and pulse laser blasts, not to mention a gauss slug. The arm falls down and it's all our mechwarrior can do to remain upright.

Zenn7 continues firing the Awesome's PPCs, ignoring the various heat warnings as he's done so many times in the past. Our extremely experienced mechwarrior usually aims for center of mass, as it's far easier to hit, but one of the PPC shots would have gone too high. Everything happens in slow motion - the Warhawk gets up, fires its twin extended-range PPCs at our Flashman - the two sets of particle beams fly past each other. The Flashman drops to the ground, as does the Warhawk, both with evaporated head assemblies. The Warhawk's operator somehow manages to eject, though.

CJ and the Timber Wolf exchange fire, the Timber Wolf taking a gauss slug to the right arm while spreading laser, LRM and ultra autocannon fire over our mech's armor. Despite all the fancy clan heat sink technology, that guy still managed to overheat his mech, so his pulse lasers stay silent.

Round 6:
Spoiler:
Image
"Sorry, assault lead." The Grasshopper's mechwarrior reports. "I'm pulling back, just too badly beat up. Half my lasers are gone, including the big one. Damn, that was clan tech, too!"

Zenn7 acknowledges, letting his mech cool off for a second and firing just the one PPC at an approaching Elemental squad. The particle beam basically fries off the armor off of one trooper.

CJ continues jumping and sniping with the gauss rifle, avoiding incoming fire while scoring a hit on a Stormcrow's center torso, although the mech sidesteps to avoid the worst of the damage.

Round 7:
Spoiler:
Image
"CJ, rally on my position, help keep these toads off while I focus on the mechs."

"Understood, lead." CJ responds, firing up the Victor's jump jets to move southwest. A gauss slug completely shatters one Elemental, while an SRM salvo takes out two more. The squad does get some SRMs and machine gun rounds to ping off Zenn7's armor, but the Awesome's armor is a little thicker than that.

Zenn7's next target is the damaged Timber Wolf, which loses its right torso armor and the right arm ultra autocannon to concentrated PPC fire. The enemy mech's targeting priorities are, to Zenn7's mind, questionable, as it expends its firepower legging a Kurita Assassin. Well, not quite fully legging, but enough actuators get fried that the mech staggers upon landing its lengthy jump, and will definitely have trouble jumping around in the future.

Round 8:
Spoiler:
Image
CJ jumps around the west side of the hill, joining Zenn7 in firing on the Timber Wolf as it gets worse and worse with each shot.

"Think we're gonna win this one, sir?"

Zenn7 sighs in between PPC blasts. "Looking pretty rough. Still... " he adds as his PPCs connect with the Timber Wolf's right torso, detonating an ammo bin, severing the right arm in place as the blowout panels do their work. "... never say never."

CJ's gauss slug connects with the Timber Wolf's leg, which, when combined with the mechwarrior being unconscious, causes it to drop to the ground.

Round 9:
Spoiler:
Image
"Right, next target." Zenn7 calls out, getting up. His mech staggers as a gauss slug impacts the center torso, but he keeps it upright. Still, his legs are saved a lot of laser-induced pain by the intervening hill.

The Kurita Stalker to the north explodes under sustained laser and PPC fire - multiple armor breaches open up its SRM ammo bin, and that, as they say, is that.

Round 10:
Spoiler:
Image
As Zenn7 blasts a Hellbringer hanging out in the cluster of clan mechs, screaming over the comms announces the demise of a Kurita Thunderbolt and more or less the demise of their damaged Assassin. The Hellbringer remains upright, although its armor isn't looking too hot.

CJ's aim is disrupted when the gauss rifle-equipped Mad Dog drills him through a torso section, blowing out a jump jet.

Round 11:
Spoiler:
Image
Zenn7 continues blasting away at the Hellbringer, forcing a center torso armor breach - no critical damage, but another couple PPC blasts there and that mech is gone.

CJ and the Mad Dog continue dueling, both their gauss rounds going wide this time.

Round 12:
Spoiler:
Image
"Well, this will be unpleasant." Zenn7 says as the clan mechwarriors to the east have finally noticed him. The Hellbringer loses its foot and left arm to the Awesome's PPC fire, but clan lasers find their way towards our assault mech now, melting armor here and there.

Round 13:
Spoiler:
Image
Zenn7 continues sending charged particle beams towards the Hellbringer, blasting away more and more armor. Surprisingly, a Kurita Wolverine is able to jump in and bring its autocannon and laser to bear, exploiting the armor breach and cracking open several "critical center torso systems". In other words, engine and gyro. The 65-ton mech wobbles and falls over, some kind of ammo detonating in its innards. The built-in CASE that all clan mechs have prevents too much damage, but when a torso section goes on a mech with an XL engine that's already taken engine damage, it's done.

CJ jumps out, giving the gauss-equipped Mad Dog a kick and some short range weapons fire, but an incoming fusillade from the Dire Wolf breaches his armor in multiple places. "Sorry, boss, my mech is done. Pulling back."

"Acknowledged." Zenn7 responds.

Round 14:
Spoiler:
Image
Zenn7's mech informs him that his right arm PPC has been disabled. "Hmm." Our mechwarrior acknowledges. With the Kurita forces to the north being slowly ground down to a pulp, it may be time to call it a day. Or, at least, get out of the line of sight of that Dire Wolf.

Round 15:
Spoiler:
Image
Zenn7 takes his own advice, backing up so he can concentrate on the Mad Dog for the moment. A PPC shot breaches the 60-ton mech's center torso armor, cracking the engine shielding. Not really an issue for a mech whose armament is two gauss rifles, but still. The return fire takes the Awesome's right arm off, but the PPC was already disabled, so it doesn't matter too much.

The Kurita Wolverine to the north is able to inflict major damage on the Stormcrow, causing an ammo explosion and crushing its right leg - granted, after that mech had disabled three of the Kurita light mechs, but still, the guy in the Wolverine has some skill.

Round 16:
Spoiler:
Image
The Mad Dog succumbs to Zenn7's PPC fire, one shot cracking the engine shielding some more, then, as the mech staggers, the second shot evaporating the cockpit.

Zenn7 takes a parting gauss slug to the right torso, destroying a heat sink, but with only two PPCs, that's not really an issue.

Round 17:
Spoiler:
Image
While moving around the hill to seek his next target, Zenn7 fries a pair of Elementals caught out in the open, one with each PPC. The remaining two of that squad decide to fire their jump jets and jump behind a hill while our Awesome's PPCs recharge.

Comms chatter indicates that the Kurita force has basically four mechs left - a Marauder, a Warhammer, a Battlemaster and the Wolverine, plus a platoon or two of infantry.

Round 18:
Spoiler:
Image
Well, minus the Marauder, as a headshot from the other Stormcrow with a medium laser takes it out. Two PPC shots from our Awesome to the Dire Wolf are symbolic, little more than an armor scratch as it's distracted by the nearby Wolverine.

Round 19:
Spoiler:
Image
The Wolverine's career of being successful against clan mechs comes to an end as an Elemental squad successfully clambers up its legs and tosses a couple of charges through an armor breach in the left torso - the remaining SRM ammo detonates, scattering the remains of the mech across the battlefield.

Zenn7 briefly switches targets, putting a PPC blast through the Adder's head as it's distracted by the Wolverine's antics.

A Kurita Scorpion (the mech, not the tank) takes some serious damage to the north, effectively disabled.

Round 20:
Spoiler:
Image
Zenn7 notes the Dire Wolf turning back towards him. "I see you want some more." he comments, sending a pair of PPC blasts into the 100-ton hulk.

The clanner somehow manages to lose his balance and drops to the ground.

"Seriously? That was just two PPCs. Well, three." Zenn7 says, observing the trail from a PPC shot fired by the distant Kurita BattleMaster.

Round 21:
Spoiler:
Image
Zenn7 catches himself tapping out a random rhythm to a song while waiting for his PPCs to recharge. "I feel your pain." He mutters, looking over at the allied Warhammer on the north side of the same hill. "Having only two PPCs... very unpleasant."

Round 22:
Spoiler:
Image
"I have an idea." Zenn7 calls out over the open frequency, blasting the Dire Wolf with another two PPC shots, this time noting that its right torso armor is almost gone. "Why don't all of you remaining clan forces retreat, and then you won't have to die while trying to climb this hill."

Round 23:
Spoiler:
Image
A Gargoyle tries to climb the hill, firing its SRMs ineffectively at Zenn7 as he breaches the Dire Wolf's right torso armor (over ten PPC hits after he first started working on that mech).

Round 24:
Spoiler:
Image
Two more armor breaches on the Dire Wolf take out the (probably long since empty) LRM launcher, although Zenn7's torso takes a pounding from the Gargoyle's SRMs.

Round 25:
Spoiler:
Image
Zenn7's computer announces heavy damage to the left arm as he continues firing PPCs at the Dire Wolf, targeting the Gargoyle with the small laser as an afterthought.

"Normally, I don't get to use this thing." He muses. "And it's not like my mech can fit any more armor, so I can't even take it off. I wonder what else I could put in there that's half a ton?"

Round 26:
Spoiler:
Image
With the Kurita Warhammer and BattleMaster both buying the farm, the only Kurita forces left on the field are a pair of infantry platoons. Zenn7 shakes his head.

"If I just had a couple more of these samurai meat shields, I could have taken them on."

Round 27:
Spoiler:
Image
Zenn7 backs up, switching targets to the Gargoyle to keep it from pursuing him.

Round 28:
Spoiler:
Image
Before he leaves, the Stormcrow takes his right torso section out, forcing Zenn7 to leave his right arm behind. One last salvo of SRMs goes flying overhead as our mechwarrior hops down the hill and disengages.

"You know..." Zenn7 says to nobody in particular as he marches his beat-up Awesome home. "... even though I think I finally got the ass groove broken in just right, I don't know if I'll be able to top that one."

"Maybe if I get into a duel with Morgan Kell." He says with a smirk. "Ghost mech my ass, got your ghost mech right here."

"Damn, sir." CJ states, joining the formation of beat-up mechs heading back to our dropships. "You sure took your own advice."

Zenn7 grins. "I really did."

---

Between this mine and the factory being destroyed, the clanners are obviously no longer going for control of the planet - just causing as much damage as they can. But with all the damage inflicted, it's unlikely that Luthien will allow us to stick around and carry out repairs - they will have their own problems rebuilding.

Overall, our losses during the Battle of Luthien were actually fairly light. Sure, most of our mechs are missing armor, arms, legs, torso bits and some heads. A few of our mechwarriors didn't make it back, and a few who did won't be piloting mechs any more. And near the end, when the clanners stopped trying to capture the planet and went for "Scorched Luthien" instead, we couldn't quite hold them back.

But we came away with a hell of a lot of clan salvage. Most, not in very good shape. Between our repairs and fixing up the clan stuff, it will take months to sort out, and some we won't be able to take care of until we get to a world with a mech factory on it. Preferably one that hasn't been wrecked by the clans.

The battle in the Kado-Guchi valley ended with a total clan rout, with the bulk of Smoke Jaguar and Nova Cat forces trapped in a pincer between elite Draconis Combine units and Kell Hound mercenaries. While exact numbers won't be available for a while, overall, clan forces took over 50% unrecoverable losses, including a significant number of front-line omni-mechs.

To add insult to injury, multiple DEST (Draconis Elite Strike Team) units are able to capture at least one dropship before it lifts off.

We still have some business to resolve on Luthien - a little salvage haggling, a couple of mechwarriors wanting to "retire" from the DCMS for a more lucrative trade (including a guy driving a Hunchback missing the right half of the mech and calling himself "Moneyshot"), what to do with some of the prisoners we captured... Oh, and getting the stamp of "contract completed" approval from the Wolf's Dragoons. However, that will only take a few days.

Where do we want to go afterwards, though? Sticking around Luthien is not an option - Kurita may be grateful for our help, but they're probably not *that* grateful.

[] Outreach - it's not home, and it's a four months travel, but unless we want to zip over to Hesperus, it's got the most modern factories this side of the Inner Sphere.
[] Dowles - it's home, but it's six months travel and we're not talking about an established industrial center.
[] Free Rasalhague Republic - it's within a couple months travel, and while they're probably not going to be selling us any mechs, we could probably wrangle access to their facilities and be back in action a lot quicker than traveling somewhere further.

[AN: Another scenario where, if played "as is", the Inner Sphere would have stood no chance. That brings the Battle of Luthien to an end. I had fun running through it, but man, some of those fixed scenarios are either a) a pain in the ass to set up or b) completely unbalanced.]
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Re: Let's Play: Battletech via MegaMek (G2)

Post by TotallyNotEvil »

Isn't Outreach the premier aerospace power in the IS? At least for quality?

We could perhaps bulk up our aerospace arm there. Get a DHS aerospace fleet with a focus on armor.
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Re: Let's Play: Battletech via MegaMek (G2)

Post by NickAragua »

TotallyNotEvil wrote: Fri Dec 10, 2021 4:23 pm Isn't Outreach the premier aerospace power in the IS? At least for quality?
It's currently the home of the Wolf's Dragoons, who are the poster child of Inner Sphere mercenaries. So they've got it all: mechs, aerospace fighters, tanks.
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Re: Let's Play: Battletech via MegaMek (G2)

Post by TheMix »

Either of the first two options seem good to me.

Also, when Kurita send their mechs, they don't send their best, do they? Seriously, other than the very first battle (I think), it seems like they mostly just got shot to @#$%. (Except for the occasional kill-steal....)

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Re: Let's Play: Battletech via MegaMek (G2)

Post by $iljanus »

If there's no rush to take contracts I think it's best to get repaired and resupplied at Outreach.


[] Outreach - it's not home, and it's a four months travel, but unless we want to zip over to Hesperus, it's got the most modern factories this side of the Inner Sphere.
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Re: Let's Play: Battletech via MegaMek (G2)

Post by El Guapo »

NickAragua wrote: Fri Dec 10, 2021 5:14 pm
TotallyNotEvil wrote: Fri Dec 10, 2021 4:23 pm Isn't Outreach the premier aerospace power in the IS? At least for quality?
It's currently the home of the Wolf's Dragoons, who are the poster child of Inner Sphere mercenaries. So they've got it all: mechs, aerospace fighters, tanks.
They're also the former Clan Wolf, right? Not that we would know that.
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Re: Let's Play: Battletech via MegaMek (G2)

Post by El Guapo »

$iljanus wrote: Fri Dec 10, 2021 6:04 pm If there's no rush to take contracts I think it's best to get repaired and resupplied at Outreach.

[X] Outreach - it's not home, and it's a four months travel, but unless we want to zip over to Hesperus, it's got the most modern factories this side of the Inner Sphere.
Yeah, I agree with that. I think priority #1 is to get fixed up and to get our acquired Clan Tech fully incorporated, and Outreach seems like the best place to do that. Plus I think we want to maintain a good relationship with Wolf's Dragoons, which we can probably do best in person.

Also in terms of our prisoners, ideally I'd like to find a few (maybe some bondsmen) that aren't too loyal to the Clans who we can bring along to help our people learn the ins and outs of how the Clantech works. Ideally if we could hire a few as technicians and/or mechwarriors that would be ideal.
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Re: Let's Play: Battletech via MegaMek (G2)

Post by Leraje »

NickAragua wrote: Fri Dec 10, 2021 4:07 pm [] Outreach - it's not home, and it's a four months travel, but unless we want to zip over to Hesperus, it's got the most modern factories this side of the Inner Sphere.
Time to avail ourselves of 'goon facilities.
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Re: Let's Play: Battletech via MegaMek (G2)

Post by TotallyNotEvil »

Ah, I was thinking of the Outworlds Alliance with the aerospace business.

Still, the Dragoons' home base sounds plenty fine, we just did them a major solid after all.
Zenn7
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Re: Let's Play: Battletech via MegaMek (G2)

Post by Zenn7 »

Outreach - they have the best available facilities, in good position for next contract, have the next contract and might have the opportunity to cash in some of our reward points for tech from what we were doing prior to helping save the Dracs.
moleymoleymoley
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Re: Let's Play: Battletech via MegaMek (G2)

Post by moleymoleymoley »

Yeah + 1 for Outreach.

That scenario was brilliant from this end Nick, love the effort and excellence you put into it all. Really makes me wish there were these sorts of premade scenarios available for MekHQ, I wouldn't have the first clue how to start making one of these up.
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NickAragua
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Re: Let's Play: Battletech via MegaMek (G2)

Post by NickAragua »

Vote Results:
Spoiler:
Outreach - unanimous
"... so to cover your, uh, engagement victory deficiency, not to mention that you owe them five tons of clan mech in trade, the best thing you can do, in my opinion, is hand over one of the light mechs you salvaged to the Kurita." the Wolf's Dragoons representative finishes, talking to our command staff as we pack up. Zenn7 still has a bandage on his head; El Guapo, Leraje and Freyland managed to avoid any actual injuries.

"Engagement victory deficiency?" Freyland asks, his face scrunched up.

The Wolf's Dragoons rep laughs. "That's what the guy said, word for word. You can't make this shit up." He offers a handshake to our command staff as he departs.

"For what it's worth, you did as well as can be expected - you helped keep the Smoke Jaguar and Nova Cat forces bottled up in their landing zones and kept them from joining the main battle and disrupting our formations. My condolences for those whose lives... " he smirks knowingly "... or mechs were lost."

We did salvage three Mist Lynx and an Adder.

The Mist Lynx is a fast 25-tonner, slightly faster than a Phoenix Hawk. We've seen two loadouts: one packing an LRM/10 and a Streak SRM/4 launcher, the other bringing two medium lasers and two SRM/6s. Between the three of these mechs that we've salvaged, our tech teams are pretty confident they could put one mech back together - but maintaining it would be very difficult as it uses clan-spec endo-steel internal structure and ferro-fibrous armor to allow it to pack in all that reduced-weight and improved-effectiveness clan weaponry. If we hand one of these over, we can forget putting a full one together.

The Adder, we've only got one of, although we've seen two variants. There's the variant with double PPCs, which, while impressive for a 35-ton mech (the Panther has only the one), appears to cause it to overheat pretty badly. The variant we salvaged has an LB 5-X autocannon, a pair of medium lasers and a large pulse laser. On the ground, it's as fast as a Phoenix Hawk. Again, endo-steel and ferro-fibrous make maintenance nearly impossible. Further more, half the mech's torso was disintegrated in our encounter with it; we won't be putting it back together.

To smooth over some ruffled Kurita feathers, it's recommended that we hand one of these over.
[] Adder - lose two ER Medium Lasers, a Large Pulse Laser, a Flamer, an LB-5X (no ammo) and some armor
[] Mist Lynx #1 - lose LRM/10 (5 shots), Streak SRM/4, 2x Machine Gun, active probe, tiny amount of armor
[] Mist Lynx #2 - lose Streak SRM/4, 2x Machine Gun, active probe, tiny amount of fancy armor
[] Mist Lynx #3 - Lose 2x ER Medium Laser, active probe, tiny amount of fancy armor

---

Liam "MoneyShot" Thyregood has approached us, offering to join our company - apparently, he's become somewhat disillusioned with all the formal politicking that goes on at the higher levels of the Draconis Combiner mechwarrior community. Effectively, in order to advance or even get non-crap assignments, you a) have to "buy in" to the whole samurai shtick and b) know people or know people that know people. Sure, the second part happens to an extent in a mercenary company, but you can always leave.

The problem is that he wants to bring his Hunchback with him, and House Kurita just took some fairly catastrophic losses in terms of mechs. So, they want a "fair exchange" for releasing him "without incident". While we're not hurting for personnel, we did take a number of casualties, in addition to having some turn-over.

So, we'll have to trade them a medium clan mech for the Hunchback.

We've salvaged two Novas - between the two of them, we'll be able to put together one mech. Its speed and jump capability is comparable to a Griffin, but the number of lasers on the "Prime" variant is frankly ridiculous. Or, there's the variant with an LRM/20 launcher and an LB-5X autocannon. Standard internal structure and armor make maintenance a breeze, although the double heat sinks will be tough to come by - but we don't go through those nearly as quickly as armor and ammo. If we hand one of these over, we'll still be able to put the other one together, it'll just take some time.

We've also salvaged a large number of Stormcrows (five to be exact). This fast 55-ton mech has four variants we've seen. The "Prime" has three medium and two large lasers; the A has four pulse lasers, two streak SRM/6 launchers and an LRM/20; the B has a class 20 ultra autocannon and six medium lasers; the D has twin LRM/20s and twin SRM/2s (for some reason), and a NARC launcher. Between these five, we can easily put two or three together. Maintenance will be painful though, between the endo-steel structure and ferro-fibrous armor that nobody in the Inner Sphere makes, and the ammo issues some of those variants have.

[] Stormcrow #1 - lose 2x large, 2x medium laser; small amount of fancy armor
[] Stormcrow #2 - lose 2x LRM/20 (22 shots), 2x SRM/2 (90 shots), 2x Narc (9 shots); small amount of fancy armor
[] Stormcrow #3 - lose 4x medium pulse laser, streak SRM/6 (15 shots), small amount of fancy armor
[] Stormcrow #4 - lose UAC/20 (3 shots), 6x medium laser, small amount of fancy armor
[] Stormcrow #5 - lose 1x large, 2x medium laser; small amount of fancy armor
[] Nova #1 - lose LB-5X (28 shots), LRM/20 (1 shot)
[] Nova #2 - lose 11x medium laser

---

We wind up unable to capture any clan prisoners (or take any bondsmen) - the Internal Security Force spooks swoop in, sometimes even before our salvage crews get on-site. We do receive a small "prisoner capture bonus".

The other quite unpleasant news is that Leraje's Black Knight is nowhere to be found as our salvage crews make their way to the area. Our conclusion is that either the retreating Jaguars took it along with the rest of their mechs in that area, or, the Kurita jerks scooped it up.

We're not really in any shape to fight for it, especially being on the capital world of the Draconis Combine, but we could theoretically appeal to them to recover it. We're likely to have to trade another clan mech in for it, though.

[] Contact the Kurita, offer to trade additional mechs for the Black Knight if they have it
[] Leraje gets first pick on one of the recovered clanner mechs (minus the Dire Wolf, which has already been claimed; we have several Thors, which are fair game)
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